We are pleased to announce the opening of the solo exhibition by internationally renowned artist Tanja Vujinović, AvantGardens (curator: Živa Kleindienst), accompanied by a workshop and a meet-up event (mentor: Žiga Pavlovič) focusing on the intersections of art and XR technologies, which will take place on Thursday, 10 November, at 7 p.m. at KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture (Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
The exhibition and accompanying program is a result of a newly established collaboration between ACE KIBLA and KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture and is an attempt to connect different geopolitical localities by directly engaging the participation of the local community in Bihać. The exhibition questions the socio-political, bodily, economic implications as well as broader cultural transformations influenced by the merging of the physical and the virtual. AvantGardens are metaphorical gardens in virtual reality in which the artist reflects on our complex relations and attitude towards the technologically enhanced environment and problematizes the nature-culture divide. These virtual worlds are built by the artist for various social VR platforms such as Sansar and VRchat, both considered as a non-game game, a class of software offering the player unbound possibilities of freeform play, identity with a great degree of self-expression and explorational interaction without the limits of conventional or imposed goals, norms, and objectives. Tanja Vujinović explores these spaces as spaces of connectedness and environments of the possible, the actual, and their mutual interplay. The artists build these so-called spheres as visions of the future environments where avatars, bionic and other non-human agents co-exist in harmony with humans, nature, and ever-emerging new technologies. Her constantly evolving artistic practice is heavily underlined by pressing urgencies we face today such as the environmental crisis, extreme processes of extraction of natural resources, terraforming, loss of biodiversity, species extinction as well as surveillance and disciplining of bodies. Recently, the artist has been developing a series of audio-visual artworks, video camera filters and digital images based on research on being embodied in immersive spaces and the development of avatars. The urge to create, approach, and communicate with our Synthetic Other intensifies.
Tanja Vujinović’s practice is deeply rooted in the overlaps and in-between spaces of art, technology, and science. In her multidisciplinary projects, she intertwines virtual reality, principles of video games, storytelling, 3D modeling, AI, and electronic music to create new poetic and immersive worlds as social spaces for rethinking the present and imagining a potentially utopian future anew. For this occasion, two of Tanja's worlds in virtual reality (AvantGarden Sphere5, 2021, and AvantGarden Coretopia, 2022) will be exhibited; they will be coupled with compilations of videos and generative artworks (Laboratories, 2021, Playgrounds, 2021, Liquid Crystal Playground, 2022, and The Core, 2022, SOMA, 2022).
Tanja Vujinović is a new media, visual and sound artist. Her works have been shown in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Strasbourg, Kunst Palast Museum in Düsseldorf, Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Kunsthaus in Merano, Museum of Contemporary Art in Istanbul, Kapelica Gallery in Ljubljana, Museum Vasarely Foundation in Aix-en-Provence, and Künstlerhaus in Vienna. She has presented at festivals such as ISEA2009 in Belfast, Ars Electronica in Linz, Kinetica Art Fair in London, Spor Festival in Aarhus, FILE Festival in Sao Paulo, and FILE RIO in Rio de Janeiro. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, and in 2010, she obtained a PhD in Philosophy and Theory of Visual Culture. Tanja is the founder of Ultramono, a cybernetic art hub. As a passionate supporter of rave culture she has created a few techno albums and is also DJing herself.
< Tanja Vujinović, The Core, 2022. __ Production: ACE KIBLA and Ultramono Co-production: KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture Supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Maribor
